Women accounted for 50% of the working age population in 2020 (those aged 16-64), 48% of those in work and 45% of the unemployed.
There were 312,000 female IT specialists in the UK workforce during 2020 - 19% of the total at that time.
If gender representation in IT were equal to the workforce 'norm' there would have been an additional 466,000 IT specialists in the UK and 778,000 female IT specialists in total in 2020.
The level of female representation in IT varies by job type - from around one in twenty IT / telecoms engineers (5% in each case over the 2016-20 period), to around one in three web designers / developers (35%) and IT operations technicians (32%).
The unemployment rate for female IT specialists in 2020 was 2.7% - higher than that for male IT specialists (2.4%) but less than the overall rate for the UK labour market (3.2%).
The incidence of self-employment amongst female IT specialists (5%) was less than half the level recorded by men working in IT positions (11%).
One half (50%) of female IT specialists working as employees were employed at large business sites (250 or more staff) compared with 41% of males.
Just under four in ten female IT specialists (38%) were working in IT businesses in 2020 - a notably lower proportion than that recorded for male IT specialists at that time (49%).
Female IT specialists were five times more likely to be working part-time than males (i.e., 15% versus 3%) during 2020 - most often as they did not want full-time work.
At £19 per hour, the median hourly earnings for female IT specialists in 2020 was 13% less than that recorded for males working in IT positions.
In 2020, female IT specialists (who were employees) appeared notably less likely than males to be in ‘positions with responsibility’ (comparison figures of 34% and 42% respectively).
Female IT specialists are marginally more highly qualified than their male counterparts and in 2020, more than seven in ten (73%) had a degree or equivalent level qualification.
Just 6% of female IT specialists had an IT degree compared with 14% of their male counterparts.
The most common means of IT specialists (male / female) securing a job during the 2016-20 period was by ‘replying to an advertisement’.
